In my previous essay I made reference to "God is in control of human events.” I have had questions as to what I meant by that, so I deem it appropriate to explain myself further.

   I did not necessarily mean that God causes the events, though Scripture indicates he sometimes does, as in the instance of the birth of the Messiah. The events are usually caused by human decisions, but God is still in control in that he allows man free choice or free will. He could and does sometimes intervene, as he did with Moses before Pharaoh. He is also in control in that he can and does "work for good" in those events, as Romans 8:28 assures us.

   The story of Joseph is a classic example of God controlling human events, whether we call it election, predestination, sovereignty, or providence. Unless all the characters in the Joseph story were free moral agents and responsible for their actions the story has no moral meaning. The brothers freely chose to sell Joseph into slavery. God did not make them do it. So with all the characters. Potiphar's wife tempted Joseph because that was the kind of woman she was and the kind of decisions she made. But still God's predestined plan was at work in every act of the drama, and his sovereignty was in control. Joseph held his brothers accountable for their evil deed even when he at last came to see it all as the providence of God.

   It is informing the way Joseph put it when he revealed himself to his brothers: "I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt" (Genesis 45:4), but he goes on to say, "It was not you who sent me here, but God, and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord over all his house, and ruler throughout all the land of Egypt" (Genesis 45:8). His brothers did it, God did it!  It is not a contradiction, for both are true. Even though Joseph saw God's sovereign hand in it all, he did not let his brothers off the hook. He deliberately put them through mental anguish, and connived to see if they would betray Benjamin, his full brother, as they had betrayed him. The brothers could not argue, as do some of us in reference to the sovereignty of God, "Well, if God did it, how can you blame us?"

   This is equally evident in the crucifixion of Christ, which Peter in his Pentecostal message described as "the deliberate intention and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23). Peter nonetheless held those who did it responsible for the foul deed, and called on them to repent.

   The persecuting Saul of Tarsus who became the persecuted Paul the apostle went to far as to insist that he was called by God even from his mother's womb (Galatians 1:15). One can't get more predestinarian than that! And yet he talked about not being "disobedient to the heavenly vision," as if he could have been (Acts 26:19).

   There is no way to to harmonize God's sovereignty and predestination on the one hand and freewill and human responsibility on the other hand. It defies logic. It is part of the mystery that we accept by faith. We can believe both that God predestined us for salvation, and that we freely chose to accept Christ as Savior. The Scriptures teach both!

   John Calvin insisted that there is no such thing as freewill, that it only appears to us that we are free. That may be right, but freewill and responsibility are so much a part of what Scripture is about that even the Princeton Calvinists have committed themselves that Calvin is not to be interpreted so as to preclude freewill. How can man's freewill and personal responsibility be more pronounced than it is in Revelation 22:17: "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” And yet Paul insists that "It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy (Romans 9:16).

   I am always hesitant to write along these lines in the face of the apostle's sobering question, "Who has known the mind of the Lord?" (Romans 11:34). In the same context he exults, "Oh, the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out!" As we ponder the ways of God with man we do well to yield to the apostolic dictum "We look through a glass darkly."

News and Notes

Both Ouida’s nurse and doctor keep applauding her progress -- gaining weight, improved appetite, vital signs all OK -- and both are puzzled as to why such progress yields no increase in energy. Her chronic fatigue is in fact getting worse. To get up and walk any at all, even with a walker, is increasingly difficult for her, and even to converse with those who call or visit is a burden. I was taking the days one at a time, now I take the hours one at a time. But we are both fully assured that God is in control and that our time is in his hands.

We welcome new readers, and we add names upon request. All these essays, plus other of my writings, are available at www.leroygarrett.org; for the essays click on Soldier On.